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Aretha Franklin Quotes

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

Being the Queen is not all about singing, and being a diva is not all about singing. It has much to do with your service to people. And your social contributions to your community and your civic contributions as well.

— Aretha Franklin

Don’t say Aretha is making a comeback, because I’ve never been away!

— Aretha Franklin

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

— Aretha Franklin

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

— Aretha Franklin

When God loves you, what can be better than that?

— Aretha Franklin

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.

— Aretha Franklin

Who hasn’t had a weight issue? If not the body, certainly the big head!

— Aretha Franklin

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.

— Aretha Franklin

I am doing what I love to do, and you cannot beat that, especially when the audience appreciates what you prepare for them. It’s very, very gratifying.

I donate heavily to the church and various churches in the Detroit community and food banks.

— Aretha Franklin

I came up in gospel.

— Aretha Franklin

Music changes, and I’m gonna change right along with it.

— Aretha Franklin

I go to the healthier foods that are less chemically treated. I am drinking lots of water to get rid of the toxins in my body. It’s a natural flushing. Water flushes your system and is also very good for your skin.

— Aretha Franklin

I sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is.

— Aretha Franklin

I think the hardest thing is losing weight. That’s the hardest thing more than anything else.

— Aretha Franklin

If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is all about.

— Aretha Franklin

I always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

— Aretha Franklin

Falling out of love is like losing weight. It’s a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.

— Aretha Franklin

I saw the Supremes when they were still singing in little black skirts and white blouses.

— Aretha Franklin

And I was booked once to go on ‘Ed Sullivan’ and I got bumped and ran out the back door crying.

— Aretha Franklin

Let’s start with the church. As you know, it’s my background, it’s a natural setting for me and it’s definitely my roots.

— Aretha Franklin

Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum.

— Aretha Franklin

I love all music.

— Aretha Franklin

I love ‘Anne of Green Gables.’ I have for years. That’s one of my favourite things. She’s such a can-do kind of girl; that’s why I’m crazy about her.

— Aretha Franklin

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

— Aretha Franklin

Yes, I’ve always been fashion conscious.

— Aretha Franklin

I’m never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things.

— Aretha Franklin

Parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home.

— Aretha Franklin

I was in my dad’s church, his Baptist church, and I think the first song I ever performed was ‘Jesus Be a Fence Around Me.’

— Aretha Franklin

I like Beyonce’s music – some of it, not all of it.

— Aretha Franklin

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

— Aretha Franklin

Columbia was a wonderful label for me. Wonderful. The records I made there garnered me an audience. I won a number of polls during the years that I was at Columbia. The Downbeat Jazz Poll. Leonard Feather, who was a huge critic back in the day, different polls that he had. The Playboy poll, a number of polls. So the music was great.

— Aretha Franklin

I’ve been around long enough for people to know who I am and what my contributions are. They know me as more than just an artist. I think they know me as a woman as well.

— Aretha Franklin

I know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard any geniuses.

— Aretha Franklin

I used to have hamburgers coming and going, especially when I was on the road. Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum. I am now opting for salads and just healthier lunches.

— Aretha Franklin

I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.

— Aretha Franklin

I don’t feel one’s personal medical condition is everybody’s business. It just isn’t something you advertise, and it’s not open to discussion.

— Aretha Franklin

I love producing, writing. I rarely write with other writers unless I have a real great respect for them. Like Burt Bacharach, or Carole Sager, or Stevie Wonder. Somebody like Smokey – like that. Otherwise, I choose to write alone.

— Aretha Franklin

Prince is gone. But the music will go on.

— Aretha Franklin

He was definitely an original and a one-of-a-kind. Truly there was only one Prince.

— Aretha Franklin

I haven’t had the occasion to meet Adele. She lives in England. So when I’m flying, or when she comes over here, perhaps we’ll have a chance. I think she’s a very fine singer, a very strong writer and performer.

— Aretha Franklin

Well, Babyface brings his savoir faire to every project. He’s a very easy producer to work with, very detailed in listening to everything.

— Aretha Franklin

Intermittently in my concert format, I sing a little jazz, a little scatting.

— Aretha Franklin

It’s easy for a singer to sometimes pick up on another singer’s sound, but that’s just copying.

— Aretha Franklin

We didn’t have music videos. You weren’t an overnight sensation. You had to work at it and learn your craft: how to take care of your voice, how to pace your concerts, all that trial and error.

— Aretha Franklin

I paid my dues; I certainly did.

— Aretha Franklin

Women absolutely deserve respect.

— Aretha Franklin

I think women and children and older people are the three least-respected groups in our society.

— Aretha Franklin

I like writing and don’t confine myself to just the words or just the music. But I don’t particularly write songs with myself in mind.

— Aretha Franklin

My American audiences are pretty mixed. I get all sorts of people, old and young. It’s nice.

— Aretha Franklin

I’m not ever going to retire. That’s – that wouldn’t be good, for one, just to go somewhere and sit down and do nothing. Please. No, that’s not moi.

— Aretha Franklin

My generation, we came along, we had to really know our craft.

— Aretha Franklin

People really don’t have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you.

President Clinton, I sang at his post-inauguration party out in Maryland.

— Aretha Franklin

It’s very satisfying. To perform the way you want to. And the way you know that you can.

— Aretha Franklin

I guess I could’ve been a prima ballerina. Or a nurse. Aretha Nightingale!

— Aretha Franklin

Ariana Grande – I like her a lot.

— Aretha Franklin

I don’t think I was a catalyst for the women’s movement.

— Aretha Franklin

Everybody wants respect. In their own way, three-year-olds would like respect, and acknowledgment, in their terms.

— Aretha Franklin

There’s a lot of great singers out here.

— Aretha Franklin

Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift.

— Aretha Franklin

I loved going to church. I enjoyed being a part of the choir and just doing things in and around the church. But as a young girl, I certainly enjoyed watching and listening to my dad.

— Aretha Franklin

As a very small girl, I listened to Charlie Parker and loved him and Max Roach and people like that.

— Aretha Franklin

I had not been in the jazz environment, having been brought up in the church. But once I got to New York, and I was signed to perform at The Village Gate and the Vanguard and clubs like that, and these – the Vanguard was one of the most elite, if not the most elite, jazz club out there.

— Aretha Franklin

You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can’t just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn’t come off the way you thought it should come off.

— Aretha Franklin

The love of my life? I’m much too young to answer that question.

— Aretha Franklin

I love Wal-Mart, and not just because my record is there. You can get some things there that you cannot find at Saks or Bergdorf’s or other upscale stores.

— Aretha Franklin

I just got into Mike Tyson. My security people kept saying, ‘Haven’t you seen him yet?’ Well, I finally did, and he’s got a real knockout punch.

— Aretha Franklin

I still have perfect diction!

— Aretha Franklin

When I first started, I wore Ceil Chapman gowns. I’ve been wondering for years what happened to the Ceil Chapman line of clothing.

— Aretha Franklin

I wanted to design a line based on Hollywood’s Golden Era. I talked with Stephen Burrows and with Willi Smith and with one or two other people, but it just seems like such a hard field to break into. I need someone like Calvin Klein’s manager to get behind me!

— Aretha Franklin

I really don’t have any shelf music.

— Aretha Franklin

I don’t do crazy things – I just don’t.

— Aretha Franklin

I love the Ritz.

— Aretha Franklin

What is auto-tune? I don’t even know what auto-tune is.

— Aretha Franklin

Yeah, I want a job in Barack’s Cabinet. How about a job, Mr. Obama? Please? Please?

— Aretha Franklin

Men don’t like eating out of cans. And I don’t like eating out of cans too much, either.

— Aretha Franklin

Christmases past, my sister Carolyn and I – we’d been waiting for Santa all night. Nothing! Where is this man?

— Aretha Franklin

For many years, I’ve wanted to do one, and I’ve always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, ‘Oh well. Christmas albums don’t sell,’ and things like that. But that’s not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important.

Men have always been gentlemen to me – responsible people with healthy attitudes.

— Aretha Franklin

Sam Cooke had a huge influence on me. He left the gospel field at one point and went into the secular, and he had this huge hit, ‘You Send Me.’ Irma, my older sister, and I heard ‘You Send Me’ on the radio while we were driving through the South one night. We had to stop the car. We got out and danced around the car out on the highway.

— Aretha Franklin

I think you have a lot of really good artists today. You have your Beyonce, Usher, Nicki Minaj and the like. But our generation, the artists were stronger. You’re talking about myself, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Four Tops.

— Aretha Franklin

It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I’ve done my job.